


Fear Landscape (ERIC COULTER)

by RockWithItWriting



Category: Divergent (Movies), Divergent (Movies) RPF, Divergent - All Media Types, Divergent Series - Veronica Roth
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-26
Updated: 2016-10-26
Packaged: 2018-08-27 04:32:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,577
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8387299
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RockWithItWriting/pseuds/RockWithItWriting
Summary: not a lot of eric in this, just my oc going through her fear landscape so trigger warning





	

I stared up at the ceiling before heaving my body out of the chair, only to be knocked down by a hard punch to the chin.

I collapsed and squirmed back, looking toward the person who hit me. I scrambled to my feet and my chest heaved. My eyes locked onto my sister’s. They were filled with malice and hatred and I watched her clench her fists before she threw another punch.

I ducked out of the way and grasped her wrist to throw her to the ground. “Alayia,” I gasped, “What are you doing?” I coughed, “Calm down.” She growled and tackled me down. I kept dodging her punches and my heart was racing. I knew that I wouldn’t move on to my next fear until my heart rate calmed down: but this was a new fear. I had never seen my younger sister in my fear landscape and I had never seen her angry.

She landed another punch and I could feel the urge to punch her back in my stomach but I couldn’t. She was my little sister and I couldn’t hurt her so I let her hit me. And she hit me and hit me and hit me and hit me and hit me. Eventually my vision faded to black and my heartbeat must have slowed because shivers woke me up. They were familiar, like I had experienced them before. And I had. In my other fear landscapes and back in Amity. I knew the moment I moved the floor would lurch and the walls of the box would clench painfully around me until I kicked one of the walls down.

So I quickly sat up and thrust my legs out just as the walls crashed into my back and the bottom of my feet. I kept pushing, kicking out, and finally the box began to crack. With one last, strong kick the door crumbled and my stomach dropped as I began falling through the air. Wind rushed by me, tossing me in all different directions, until I finally righted myself, falling toward the ground with my feet down. The water was below me but it would feel like icy cement when I hit it. The thought did not help my heart rate go down. I knew I had to fight the fear I felt leaking from my eyes, toward the sky, because the water was not getting any closer. I was just falling, falling, eternally falling. I needed to think of a way to calm down.

How were you supposed to hit water? How did divers do it in the history textbooks?

I clenched my eyes and crossed my arms like the pictures showed, pointing my toes in my heavy boots and suddenly I felt the icy water engulf me. I flailed around but then two strong hands wrapped in my jacket and pulled me upward by the torso. I gasped in air and pried my eyes open. I half expected to be done with the landscape but when I laid eyes on the man holding me I screamed, thrashing harder. I scratched his wrists and he plunged me back down, my head slamming against the bottom of the tub as my lungs screamed for air. It happened over and over and over because I couldn’t get over it. I couldn’t make myself calm because I was only three fears in and He was there. I couldn’t get calm because he was drowning me and then pulling me back. Maybe- an idea I used when the landscape was reality came to me and I feigned unconsciousness, death, falling limp in his arms. It worked. I sunk down, away, and into my fourth fear. The water got colder, darker, and eventually my body twisted and I landed on my feet in a dark, spacious room.

It was like I hadn’t even been in the bathtub, but in my fourth fear was not a time to think about the third. I pushed my hair back and began to explore, but the darkness was the only thing I could see and feel.

I ran for a little bit but then bent over to place my hands on my knees to take a breather. I was catching my breath and that’s when I felt it. The first tickle of something crawling on my back, large, slow. I shuddered and pushed the thought of a spider out of my mind but it kept coming back, especially when I felt two more on my thighs, crawling toward my torso.

“Oh, shit,” I whispered, “Shit, shit, shit. God I hope they’re not venomous.” As soon as I finished speaking the lights flickered on and I saw myself in the mirror, spiders covering me. I gritted my teeth before tentatively batting one of the spiders off of my thighs. It tried to scuttle back up my foot and onto my ankle but I kicked it off again. When I realized that the spiders weren’t going to bite me I was able to throw them all off and back against the mirror. I closed my eyes and tipped my head back, inhaling and exhaling before turning around and seeing a door.

I stepped through it and sighed happily.

The wind was cool on my skin and made me shiver when it hit my sweaty forehead. God, how many fears did I have left? I was so tired, so worn down, and suddenly I heard a low whistle and a bullet hit the ground next to me. I tripped to the side and crashed down into tall weeds as more bullets rained down on me.

“Get her!” I heard voices call, “Get the factionless!” The calls were jovial and accompanied by threats and gunshots. I hopped up and began to run, ducking through the weeds in hope of half ass concealment. I stumbled out of the field and came face to face with the barrel of a gun, dropping to my knees. My chest rattled like I had already been shot but as I looked up at the faceless Dauntless I gave up. I resigned myself to death and closed my eyes, waiting for my demise, which I guess was the thing to get me through my fear. I didn’t totally understand what that fear was but I was happy to be in a familiar place because when I opened my eyes I was kneeling next to my bed in Amity.

The air was warm and comfortable and when I looked out my window I could see familiar colors and faces. It almost made me nostalgic for what was once my home but when I looked down at my bloodied and bruised knuckles and the black clothing of Dauntless, I knew I had made the right choice.

Especially when I heard fast, hard footsteps coming down the hall toward my room. I whirled and felt my lungs trying to overwork themselves. It was all so familiar, so scary, so I lunged for my doorknob and twisted the lock, backing up toward the opposite wall. I clenched my hands into fists as the footsteps slowed outside my door. I could hear him debating.

“Cruel thoughts lead to cruel words, and hurt you as much as they hurt their target,” I whispered to myself. It was part of the manifesto, my favorite part. I repeated it as He began pounding on the door, shouting at me. “Cruel thoughts lead to cruel words, and hurt you as much as they hurt their target,” My voice shook as the door fell down and He was there. He was wearing Amity clothing, but he was no Amity. A cruel man transferred from Candor to a faction where he did not belong, my father stood tall and strong and cruel. I flinched into the wall behind me. “Cruel thoughts lead to cruel words, and hurt you as much as they hurt their target.”

Before I could blink he was on me, holding me by my throat as the last word left my mouth. I tried to get away, I did, but he was too strong. He hit me, backhand, and I scratched at his wrists, again. I had never fought back, not until my sixteenth birthday when I transferred, but as I saw stars I decided I had to. I had to fight back, if only once, and in a simulation. So I kicked out, landing a blow on my father’s shin and he retaliated by giving me a broken nose with three quick punches. I threw my own and he recoiled, dropping me.

That was when I gained the upper hand.

I kicked him, and then punched him and when he was on the ground I stood over him like he stood over me. Just before I kicked him in the head, knocking him out, I spoke, “Cruel thoughts lead to cruel words, and hurt you as much as they hurt their target.”

And then I was calm.

I felt like I had done what I was destined to do and in a moment I was back in the room where I began, face wet with tears. People were clapping but it was all white noise. I only wanted one person to see me as strong, and I looked to him. His ice blue eyes were shining with tears and empathy.

Eric smiled at me and nodded, subtly telling me that I was okay. Everything was okay.


End file.
